Reclining rear seat system for a motor vehicle

ABSTRACT

A reclining rear seat system is provided for a motor vehicle. That reclining rear seat system includes a front seat, a first actuator for displacing the front seat between a first position and a second position, a reclining rear seat and a second actuator for displacing the reclining rear seat between an upright position and fully reclined position. Further the system includes a controller configured to control the reclining rear seat system and a front seat occupant sensor.

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional PatentApplication Ser. No. 62/140,803 filed on 31 Mar. 2015, the fulldisclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This document relates generally to the motor vehicle equipment fieldand, more particularly, to a reclining rear seat system for a motorvehicle.

BACKGROUND

In the motor vehicle industry there is a desire to increase comfort forrear seat passengers in all types of vehicles. However, increasing rearseat passenger comfort is challenging due to space constraints found inmost vehicles. This document relates to a new and improved recliningrear seat system which provides additional space and a foot rest forenhanced rear seat passenger comfort.

SUMMARY

In accordance with the purposes and benefits described herein, areclining rear seat system is provided for a motor vehicle. Thatreclining rear seat system comprises a front seat, a first actuator fordisplacing the front seat between a first position and a secondposition, a reclining rear seat, and a second actuator for displacingthe reclining rear seat between an upright position and a fully reclinedposition. In addition the reclining rear seat system includes acontroller configured to control the reclining rear seat system and afront seat occupant sensor.

Still further, the reclining rear seat system includes a foot rest. Thefoot rest is displaceable between a home position adjacent to the motorvehicle floor and a deployed position extending forward of the recliningrear seat toward the front seat.

More specifically, the front seat includes a seat back and a seatbottom. Further, the second position is vehicle forward of the firstposition with the seat back angled so as to overlie the seat bottom.

The reclining rear seat includes a rear seat back and a rear seat bottomforming an included angle A. That included angle A is smaller in theupright position than in the reclined position. Still further, thereclining rear seat system includes a foot rest actuator for deployingthe foot rest between the home position and the deployed position.

In accordance with an additional aspect, a method is provided forreclining a rear seat in a motor vehicle. That method may be broadlydescribed as comprising the steps of (a) detecting, by a sensor, thepresence of an occupant in the front seat, (b) displacing, by a firstactuator, the front seat vehicle forward if no occupant is detected soas to increase space behind the front seat and (c) reclining, by asecond actuator, a rear seat in the increased space behind the frontseat.

The method may be further described as including the step of deploying,by a third actuator, a foot rest for a rear seat occupant. Further themethod may include the step of folding, by the first actuator, a frontseat back over a front seat bottom so that the front seat back at leastpartially overlies the front seat bottom. Still further the methodincludes controlling operation of the first actuator, the secondactuator and the third actuator by a controller configured to controlthe reclining rear seat system.

In the following description, there are shown and described severalpreferred embodiments of the reclining rear seat system. As it should berealized, the reclining rear seat system is capable of other, differentembodiments and its several details are capable of modification invarious, obvious aspects are without departing from the system as setforth and described in the following claims. Accordingly, the drawingsand description should be regarded as illustrative in nature and not asrestrictive.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGURES

The accompanying drawing figures incorporated herein and forming a partof the specification, illustrate several aspects of the reclining rearseat system and together with the description serve to explain certainprinciples thereof.

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of the reclining rear seat system.

FIG. 1a is a schematic block diagram of the controller for the recliningrear seat system.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view illustrating the rear seat in a standard,upright position behind a front seat also in a standard, uprightposition.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view illustrating the rear seat displaced fullyforward in the vehicle in order to create extra space for the rear seatshown in the fully reclined position with the foot rest deployed.

Reference will now be made in detail to the present preferredembodiments of the reclining rear seat system, examples of which areillustrated in the accompanying drawing figures.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Reference is now made to FIG. 1 which is a schematic block diagram ofthe reclining rear seat system 10 that is the subject matter of thisdocument. As illustrated, the system 10 includes a front seat 12 havinga front seat bottom 14 and a front seat back 16.

A first actuator 18 is provided for displacing the front seat 14 betweena first position and a second position that will be described in greaterdetail below. In the illustrated embodiment the first actuator 18comprises a front seat bottom actuator 20 connected to the front seatbottom 14 and a front seat back actuator 22 connected to the front seatback 16. As will be described in greater detail below, the front seatbottom actuator 20 displaces the front seat bottom 14 along a track (notshown) on the floor of the vehicle between first and second positionswhile the front seat back actuator 22 displaces the front seat back soas to adjust the angle between the front seat back 16 and the front seatbottom 14.

The reclining rear seat system 10 also includes a reclining rear seat 24including a rear seat bottom 26 and a rear seat back 28. A secondactuator 30 displaces the reclining rear seat 24 between an uprightposition and a fully reclined position. In the illustrated embodiment,the second actuator 30 comprises a rear seat bottom actuator 32connected to the rear seat bottom 26 and a rear seat back actuator 34connected to the rear seat back 28.

As also illustrated in FIG. 1, the reclining rear seat system 10includes a foot rest 36 for the rear seat occupant and a foot restactuator 38. The reclining rear seat system 10 also includes acontroller 40, such as a dedicated microprocessor or an electroniccontrol unit (ECU) that is configured to control the reclining rear seatsystem 10 including the first actuator 18, the second actuator 30 andthe third or foot rest actuator 38. In one possible embodiment, thecontroller 40 comprises one or more processors 42, one or more memories44 and one or more network interfaces 46 (see FIG. 1a ). The controller40 may also include a human interface 48, such as a control pad, and/ora multifunction display with touchscreen capability 50. In anotherpossible embodiment, the controller 40 may include a speech processor 52so that the reclining rear seat system 10 will respond to voice command.The main processor 42, the memory 44, the network interface 46, thehuman interface 48, the display device 50 and the speech processor 52all communicate with each other over the communication bus 53.

As also illustrated in FIG. 1, the reclining rear seat system 10includes a front seat occupant sensor 54 connected to the controller 40.The front seat occupant sensor 54 may take one of any number of formsincluding, for example, any type of presence sensor such as utilized toactivate and deactivate the airbag system for the passenger side frontseat. Thus, the front seat occupant sensor 54 may be, for example, aweight sensor, an infrared sensor, a camera or the like.

Reference is now made to FIG. 2 which illustrates the reclining rearseat system 10 with the front seat 12 in a standard, first or uprightposition such as it is typically oriented in order to accommodate afront seat passenger and the rear seat 24 also in an upright positionfor accommodating a rear seat passenger. When an occupant of the rearseat 24 wishes to displace the rear seat into a fully reclined position,that occupant may initiate that action by manipulation of the humaninterface 48, appropriate activation through the multifunctiontouchscreen 50 or by voice command via the speech processor 52. Inresponse to an activation signal, the controller 40 confirms thepresence or absence of an occupant in the front seat 12 via datareceived from the front seat occupant sensor 54. If the front seat 12 isunoccupied, the controller 40 controls the operation of the actuators18, 30 and 38 to cause the front seat to move forward and the rear seat24 to be displaced into the fully reclined position illustrated in FIG.3.

More specifically, the controller 40 activates the front seat bottomactuator 20 which moves the front seat bottom 14 vehicle forward as faras possible toward the dashboard 56. Further the controller 40 causesthe front seat back actuator 22 to displace the front seat back 16 ofthe vehicle forward so as to at least partially overlie the front seatbottom 14 until the front seat 12 reaches the second positionillustrated in FIG. 3. As should be appreciated, by displacing the frontseat 12, including the front seat bottom 14 and front seat back 16, asfar forward as possible, space behind the front seat 12 is maximized forthe added comfort of the rear seat occupant.

The added space provided behind the front seat 12 allows the recliningrear seat 24 to be displaced into the fully reclined position.Accordingly, the controller 40 causes the rear seat bottom actuator 32to displace the rear seat bottom of the vehicle forward. Further, thecontroller 40 causes the rear seat back actuator 34 to recline the rearseat back 28 into the recess 58 provided in the vehicle trim behind theseat. Thus, the included angle A formed between the rear seat bottom 26and rear seat back 28 is increased when the rear seat 24 is displacedinto the fully reclined position.

In addition, the foot rest 36 is deployed from a home position adjacentthe vehicle floor and the front face of the rear seat bottom 26 to adeployed position projecting forward of the rear seat bottom 26. Notethe deployed foot rest 36 as illustrated in FIG. 3. Together, the addedspace provided by displacing the front seat 12 forward, the reclining ofthe rear seat 24 and the deployment of the foot rest 36 greatly enhancethe comfort of the rear seat passenger.

In contrast, when a rear seat occupant activates the system 10 in orderto recline the rear seat and the front seat occupant sensor 54 providesdata to the controller 40 indicating there is an occupant in the frontseat, the front seat 12 is not displaced into the second or vehicleforward position and the rear seat 24 will not be displaced into thefully reclined position as illustrated in FIG. 3.

As should be appreciated from the foregoing, the reclining rear seatsystem 10 facilitates a method of reclining a rear seat 24 in a motorvehicle. That method may be broadly described as including the steps of:(a) detecting, by a front seat occupant sensor 54, the presence of anoccupant in the front seat 12, (b) displacing, by a first actuator 18,the front seat 12 vehicle forward if no occupant is detected so as toincrease the space behind the front seat and (c) reclining, by a secondactuator 30, the rear seat 24 in the increased space behind the frontseat.

Further the method includes deploying, by a third actuator 38, a footrest 36 for the rear seat occupant. In addition, the method may includefolding, by the first actuator 18 a front seat back 16 over a front seatbottom 14 so the front seat back at least partially overlies the frontseat bottom. Still further, that method includes controlling operationof the first actuator 18, second actuator 30 and third actuator 38 by acontroller 40 configured to control the reclining rear seat system 10.

The foregoing has been presented for purposes of illustration anddescription. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit theembodiments to the precise form disclosed. Obvious modifications andvariations are possible in light of the above teachings. All suchmodifications and variations are within the scope of the appended claimswhen interpreted in accordance with the breadth to which they arefairly, legally and equitably entitled.

What is claimed:
 1. A reclining rear seat system for a motor vehicle,comprising: a front seat; a first actuator for displacing said frontseat between a first position and a second position; a reclining rearseat; a second actuator for deploying said reclining rear seat betweenan upright position and a fully reclined position; a controllerconfigured to control the reclining rear seat system; and a front seatoccupant sensor.
 2. The reclining rear seat system of claim 1, furtherincluding a foot rest, said foot rest being displaceable between a homeposition adjacent a floor of said motor vehicle and a deployed positionextending forward of said reclining rear seat toward said front seat. 3.The reclining rear seat system of claim 2, wherein said front seatincludes a seat back and a seat bottom.
 4. The reclining rear seatsystem of claim 3, wherein said second position is vehicle forward ofsaid first position with said seat back angled so as to overlie saidseat bottom.
 5. The reclining rear seat system of claim 4, wherein saidreclining rear seat includes a rear seat back and a rear seat bottomforming an included angle A, said included angle A in said uprightposition being smaller than said included angle A in said reclinedposition.
 6. The reclining rear seat system of claim 5, furtherincluding a foot rest actuator for displacing said foot rest betweensaid home position and said deployed position.
 7. The reclining rearseat system of claim 1, wherein said front seat includes a front seatbottom and a front seat back and said first actuator includes a frontseat bottom actuator and a front seat back actuator.
 8. The recliningrear seat system of claim 7, wherein said reclining rear seat includes arear seat bottom and a rear seat back and said second actuator includesa rear seat bottom actuator and a rear seat back actuator.
 9. A methodfor reclining a rear seat in a motor vehicle, comprising: detecting, bya sensor, presence of an occupant in a front seat; displacing, by afirst actuator, said front seat vehicle forward if no occupant isdetected so as to increase space behind said front seat; and reclining,by a second actuator, a rear seat in said increased space behind saidfront seat.
 10. The method of claim 9, further including deploying, by athird actuator, a foot rest for a rear seat occupant.
 11. The method ofclaim 10, including folding, by said first actuator, a front seat backover a front seat bottom so that said front seat back at least partiallyoverlies said front seat bottom.
 12. The method of claim 11, includingcontrolling operation of said first actuator, said second actuator andsaid third actuator by a controller configured to control a recliningrear seat system.